Isn’t it funny how something that isn’t of any importance one day suddenly becomes all consuming the next? Now I understand that if someone is involved in a serious car accident or discovers an illness, then everything changes. But, I’m talking about something much milder. I’m talking about suddenly realizing that you have more stuff than you can handle if you are going to move into smaller quarters. Like five times the stuff.
In the military where you moved every two to three years, there was a built-in system to control your amount of stuff. And while we did gather more stuff, we also got rid of stuff. If we bought a new couch, we sold the old couch. But, when we retired from the military in 1990, we moved into a house with lots of room and lots of storage space. So now when we buy a new couch, we move the old couch to the finished basement or out into the gazebo. When we remodeled the kitchen, we hung the old cabinets in our garage so we could fill them up with more stuff. We were good! We were very efficient and when the name of the game was accumulate, we excelled.
So in the blink of an eye, the rules changed. Now we are concentrating on getting rid of stuff. It was a lot more fun to accumulate. The first difficult question is where to even start. If you just wander from room to room looking at everything, it will drive you crazy. So we decided to start with our files. I started with my study and then, will move to the basement. This is serious work. I was really doing quite well in disposing of files that I would never use. Then, I pulled out my desk drawer and focused on on a pile of cards I had been keeping forever. Some of the stuff I found was amazing.
I found a business card advocating the election of Brunson Hollingsworth for prosecuting attorney in the Democratic Primary on August 7, 1962. He had been a year ahead of me in law school at MIZZOU. The front had a picture of him with his dark framed glasses and a big, bushy mustache. On the back, he had printed some lines which included, “A time like this demands strong minds; great hearts, true faith, and ready hands.” I scratched my head over the part about “ready hands.” I’ve observed too many politicians with “ready hands.” Anyway, Brunson was elected as the prosecuting attorney of Jefferson County.
This wasn’t Brunson’s first run for office. In 1961, he ran for president of the University’s student body. Two Greeks were running and Brunson tried to get the votes of the independent students. He ran on a “do nothing” platform and announced that if he were elected, he would do nothing. It was great fun. When you are in law school, any diversion is great fun. He rented a horse and wagon and had himself driven around campus laying on a bed of straw in the back of the wagon (doing nothing). He also had a two-foot tree stump that we carried to the center of traffic intersections on campus. He would then sit on the stump (posing as Rodin’s The Thinker) and, of course, do nothing. It was a riot. I guess you had to be there. He came in third in the election, but insisted that the other two candidates had spent more money than was permitted and declared himself the winner. The University didn’t buy it.
Going through these cards was not a productive project towards cleaning out stuff. Each card I looked at brought back fond memories. I have a Trial Observer card from the late Sixties (signed by the infamous Lew Shull) when I was stationed in Germany. Also, a Cook County Sheriff’s Correctional Department ID from when I was doing pro bono work toward a Master’s Degree at Northwestern. And, a press pass issued to me by The Fort Riley Post when I started writing The Judge Says.
I also found my receipt for taking the H1N1 Swine Flu shot in 1976. What a fiasco! One person died of the flu and at least 25 died from taking the flu shot. That was 38 years ago, so I am probably safe. Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. I’m thinking of getting a tattoo that says “Swine Flu Shot Survivor – 1976.” I just can’t figure out where I should put it.
At this late stage, I have now satisfied myself that I have probably screened this little pile of cards many times, because everyone is a keeper. I still have my Red Cross blood donor cards, even though I can no longer give blood. That is because I was stationed in Germany in the 1980’s. Something to do with Mad Cow Disease. Mad Cows and Swine Flu. I think I will become a vegetarian.
Written by PJ Rice at www.ricequips.com